Surprises discovered in decoded kiwifruit genome
“The kiwifruit is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop. It has long been called ‘the king of fruits’ because of its remarkably high vitamin C content and balanced nutritional composition of minerals, dietary fiber and other health-benefits,” says Zhangjun Fei, a scientist from the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell who contributed heavily to the study, which was conducted by a team of plant scientists from the United States and China and published Oct. 18 in Nature Communications.
“The genome sequence will serve as a valuable resource for kiwifruit research and may facilitate the breeding program for improved fruit quality and disease resistance,” Fei says.
Prior to the study, extensive research on the metabolic accumulation of vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids had been reported in kiwifruits, but genome sequence data, critical for its breeding and improvement, had never been available.
“The kiwifruit genome sequence represents the first of a member in the order Ericales, thus providing a valuable resource for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies,” Fei says. “We expect to continue generating genome sequences from other kiwifruit varieties to investigate the genetic diversity of kiwifruit and elucidate regulatory networks of important biological processes.”
The sequence is accessible online at the Kiwifruit Genome Database.
Source: news.cornell.edu
